Indie Devs Can’t Self-Publish on Xbox One

Nintendo and Sony have embraced the indie developer, as of late. Especially Sony. Those crazy kids are trying to attract independent studios onto any of their platforms.

However, it appears that Microsoft’s stance isn’t changing.

In an interview with Shack News, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms Matt Booty was asked if indie developers would need a publisher to get their titles on Xbox Live:

“as of right now, yes. We intend to continue to court developers in the ways that we have. I would also expect that for this new generation, that we’re going to continue to explore new business models and new ways of surfacing content. But Microsoft Studios is a publisher that works with a wide range of partners, as do a lot of other people, to bring digital content to the box.”

Basically, indie developers will not be able to self-publish their games on Xbox One, meaning that you may see a lot of developers take their business elsewhere – whether that’s Steam, Wii U or PS4.

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From what I know, this is exactly how Nintendo operated in the Wii generation and it may even still be the case now. All developers, indie or otherwise had to have a publisher and a company building – I’m not sure if Nintendo have relaxed on those rules since then; they must have considering the indie support for the Wii U and 3DS.

If Microsoft aren’t talking about indies by E3, then they’re making a big mistake.